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3.8L Radiators, Oil, Trans & Power Steering Cooling Equipment

   

First lets get something straight - your OEM radiator is more than adequate for even moderate track abuse of a built car. There is no point at which you require an upgraded radiator, oil cooler, or even a power steering cooler. The only known cases of heat-soaked cooling equipment has been on utterly abused cars that are getting tracked for substantial periods of time, repeatedly. If you are drifting on a routine basis for full sessions at a time, buff up your P/S cooler. Upgraded radiators will rarely be needed but they offer a sense of security and thermal headroom for heavy builds where you want to be certain there is thermal margin in your cooling system. Given their price, if you are adding a turbo, it is advisable to throw in a nice radiator.

As for external oil coolers, they are so cheap and easy, there's no reason not to install one, because cooler oil is better oil .


Radiators

- Mishimoto - Reasonable multi-core radiator. Exceptionally poor welding work and workmanship. For whatever reason, this radiator sits closer to the motor, and is spaced off of the A/C condenser more than the OEM radiator, meaning it crowds up against your motor. This is a problem if you are hoping to run large (2.5" or larger) diameter charge piping anywhere near the front of your motor during a turbo/sc build - but it still works very well at its primary job, which is to cool... coolant.

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Koyo - Known good, respectable brand of multi-core racing and OEM radiators. Good fit & finish, works very well, a little pricier than it's neighbor from Japan.


Oil Coolers

These things are pretty damned simple. Summit Racing or pretty much any distributor can hook you up with a generic fluid cooler that runs fluid in one end via oil/fuel hose/line with a few hose clamps, and runs it out the other end the same way. You will typically tap your oil to and from the oil filter using a sandwich plate adapter; these adapters are readily available from Mishimoto, Blox, and a few other vendors. I'll leave you and Google alone for a minute to figure that out; or simply ask for it from your reseller of choice.


Power Steering Coolers

Luckily enough for you, the first generation car merely requires relocation of the power steering cooler to avoid overheating under heavy drift use. While you're in there if you got the time and money it couldn't hurt to replace the OEM inline cooler thingie with a proper finned fluid cooler, any generic U-cooler will fit (meaning the in and out fittings are on the same side to match OEM setup) Mishimoto makes generic fluid coolers both inline and U-type that will work for nearly any application.


Automatic Transmission Fluid Coolers

First of all, my condolences for purchasing an automatic, and secondly, best of luck building it for performance. Your automatic transmission will only survive additional punishment so long as the fluid is kept at operating temperature; the moment that stuff starts to cook, your number is up. Here's the thing - Hyundai actually has a good record with in-house automatics. The GK Tiburon was famous for withstanding 450-500whp on stock automatic transmissions, provided the fluid was upgraded to heavy duty stuff with a friction modifier additive in it, typically.

That being said, nobody I'm aware of has pushed the BK38 Automatic very hard in any huge builds (that worked). Given the history of the previous generation transmission I say go for the gold and keep the automatic trans cool with a generic fluid cooler; if you get under your car you will notice the in/out lines on the transmission and running hoses to/from it to a cooler up front is academic. Find a good place to hang it, call it a day.